Power Packed

Greetings!

I apologize for the delayed post this week. All I have for an excuse is that my brain has been running at about 90mph and I haven't really been able to catch up with it.

Last week in Kids Church was fantastic. Again. Let me take a minute to explain how far I and my leaders have come in reference to this word fantastic. Fantastic used to look like lots of kids, a few guests, no technical difficulties, very few checks on Mr. Check List, and kids that were calm, cool, and collected... meaning you could tell that somehow they all had a good night's sleep and didn't have sprinkled, chocolate donuts for breakfast. We've come a LONG way since then. Now, fantastic can look like just the opposite of those things (which can sound like a pretty draining morning), but with the addition of one major thing.... the presence of the Lord shows up. Yep, this past Sunday was kinda crazy, I admit. We had technical difficulties... We had behavior problems... We had to come up with activities in a split-second because our original plan wasn't exactly working... but ya know what? It was still a fantastic morning because the presence of the Lord was so evident. He's such a good Father!

Last Sunday was our last week on the subject of prayer. But we'll still be incorporating elements of what we've been learning as we continue into another theme. We discussed how our prayers "pack a punch". :) James 5:16 says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." Therefore, our Big Point for the day was "My prayers are powerful and effective!" Powerful meaning 'big stuff'. Effective meaning 'something happens'. So basically when we pray, big stuff happens. I kinda like that. :) Here's the catch... Big stuff happens ONLY when we pray in accordance with the will of God. We discussed the awesome story of Joshua's prayer for the sun to stand still. It happened. Why? Because it was the will of God. It's so important to know the will of God and then pray in agreement with that. Well, we then have to pose this question... How do we know what the will of God is? Two ways - 1. the Word of God  2. we ask and then listen to God. The Lord will tell us what His will is. It's not something He's trying to hide from us. But sometimes I think He wants us to simply ask. It develops our trust relationship with Him. So that's what we did at the end of our service on Sunday morning. We spent some time listening to the Lord, asking Him what His will was for each of us that morning. We ended up praying for healing over some kids and their families. Then we gave the Lord thanks.

I dream big. And I believe that these kids have the potential to do amazing things for the glory of God. Not later, when they become teenagers and adults. But now. While they're still kids and haven't lost that child-like faith. I see a generation of kids rising up in their schools, neighborhoods, sports clubs, etc. and not being afraid of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This big, powerful, amazing God lives IN us. HE LIVES IN US! And if we take the time to seek Him and His will, who knows what kind of amazing things will happen? I see people getting healed, delivered, and set free all because of the simple faith of a group of kids. I'm ready to see this happen and I hope you're with me. Our next theme will be on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This has been a long time coming and it's about time I started teaching on this very real Helper that was sent to us when Jesus went to be with His Father in Heaven. I'm excited to see what the Holy Spirit will do as we spend time seeking Him!